Canada has no domestic league. With respect to its 3 MLS teams, maybe if lucky, one Canadian will play per match. Canada has terrible grass roots coaching. It's mostly all volunteer coaches who don't know what they're doing and teach their teams to play kick and run and use the biggest kids to to try win youth trophies. No emphasis on skill development at a young age. There are hardly any qualified coaches. Kids don't play on their own to develop their skills. Playing 2 or 3 times a week with their club team isn't going to do it. You can't play outside in Canada's climate for a solid 5 months of the year due to winter. Central American teams play in tough environments where fans are in your face, throw bags of piss and batteries at our players and set off fireworks all night outside our hotel. Playing in the extreme heat of these countries is something Canadian players find very difficult to do. No one really supports Canadian soccer, only European soccer. Many of our talented young players quit and play other sports because there's no pathway to the pros. Many of our best players also qualify for other countries and choose to play for them even though they grew up in Canada.

Canada has no domestic league. With respect to its 3 MLS teams, maybe if lucky, one Canadian will play per match. Canada has terrible grass roots coaching. It's mostly all volunteer coaches who don't know what they're doing and teach their teams to play kick and run and use the biggest kids to to try win youth trophies. No emphasis on skill development at a young age. There are hardly any qualified coaches. Kids don't play on their own to develop their skills. Playing 2 or 3 times a week with their club team isn't going to do it. You can't play outside in Canada's climate for a solid 5 months of the year due to winter. Central American teams play in tough environments where fans are in your face, throw bags of piss and batteries at our players and set off fireworks all night outside our hotel. Playing in the extreme heat of these countries is something Canadian players find very difficult to do. No one really supports Canadian soccer, only European soccer. Many of our talented young players quit and play other sports because there's no pathway to the pros. Many of our best players also qualify for other countries and choose to play for them even though they grew up in Canada.

That's the tip of the ice berg, it goes much deeper than that.

Edited by canpro: 22/10/2015 04:05:32 PM

would it be more ideal for canada to invest in their own league and break away from the mls. Where more Canadians can play regular football?

Canada has no domestic league. With respect to its 3 MLS teams, maybe if lucky, one Canadian will play per match. Canada has terrible grass roots coaching. It's mostly all volunteer coaches who don't know what they're doing and teach their teams to play kick and run and use the biggest kids to to try win youth trophies. No emphasis on skill development at a young age. There are hardly any qualified coaches. Kids don't play on their own to develop their skills. Playing 2 or 3 times a week with their club team isn't going to do it. You can't play outside in Canada's climate for a solid 5 months of the year due to winter. Central American teams play in tough environments where fans are in your face, throw bags of piss and batteries at our players and set off fireworks all night outside our hotel. Playing in the extreme heat of these countries is something Canadian players find very difficult to do. No one really supports Canadian soccer, only European soccer. Many of our talented young players quit and play other sports because there's no pathway to the pros. Many of our best players also qualify for other countries and choose to play for them even though they grew up in Canada.

That's the tip of the ice berg, it goes much deeper than that.

Edited by canpro: 22/10/2015 04:05:32 PM

would it be more ideal for canada to invest in their own league and break away from the mls. Where more Canadians can play regular football?

A domestic league is rumoured to be announced by the end of the year. Whether it actually happens or not remains to be seen.

A few fence sitters have recently committed to Canada (Hoilett at Q.P.R, Aird at Rangers, Cavallini - a top scorer in Uruguay) which should help in qualifying. Canada has some good young kids too (20 year old Cyle Larin has 17 goals for Orlando in MLS this year) but the pool of players isn't deep enough.

Canadians are treated as domestic players on the 3 Canadian MLS teams, but they count as foreigners on the American MLS clubs, so it's hard for a lot of Canadians to find clubs.

People outside the Concacaf region also under estimate how hard it is to go play in Central America. It's very, very difficult. Canadian players don't have the mental strength to do it yet, it seems.

The USA are somewhat fortunate 3rd qualifies directly for the WC and that 4th makes the playoff as based on past history you would expect Costa Rica and Mexico to fill the top 2 spots unless the USA improves significantly.

Logic suggest that 3rd or better is still a very strong chance unless the USA manage one point or less in their 2 March WCQ matches.

Admittedly they have played the two hardest teams in the group stage already. So probably better to see how they are fairing at the end of playing all teams once. A 4-0 loss to Costa Rica isn't acceptable for them however.

USA back with a 6:0 thrashing of Honduras. Pulisic was awesome. Trinidad and Tobago beat Panama 1:0 while Mexico got a 2:0 win over Costa Rica. These results have made the group extremely even. Next matches on Tuesday.

If Australia end up in the AFC playoff and win that (which is no certainty) Panama would have to be the preferred opponent, no doubt they would be tougher than rankings would suggest though - a lot like the ME teams are within Asian qualifying.

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